Chocolate Cupcakes for Halloween (and the IECupcake Fair!)

Last year, I had the distinct pleasure, and an incredible sugar high, judging the Cupcake Competition at the Inland Empire Cupcake Fair. This year, I’m excited to be doing it all again! The 3rd Annual Inland Empire Cupcake Fair & Baking Expo will take place on Sunday, October 4, 2015, at the Riverside Convention Center. Subtitled “Cupcakes for a Cause” this year the event will donate proceeds to Epilepsy Education Everywhere – a local non-profit organization whose goal is to educate the public about epilepsy and provide resources for those living with epilepsy.

Partnering with IEShineOn.com has been a blessing. They have been working so hard to make this event even bigger and better than last year. I can’t wait to see it all come together! This year guests can expect dessert tastings, a cupcake eating competition, live demonstrations, giveaways, entertainment, activities, shopping and more! There will be both professional and amateur categories for Best Overall Cupcake and Most Unique Cupcake (judged by an epically awesome panel of people!) The Most Popular category will include all baked goods and desserts at the event and voted by event guests! So you’re going to want to be there to taste and vote! C’mon! Who doesn’t love cupcakes on a Sunday afternoon?

As the event is taking place in October this year, the theme will be Halloween! Halloween is my favorite baking season, so I’m stoked to see what participants of the Cake Decorating Contest will come up with to showcase their talents! Yes, there will be pictures on my Instagram account, so be sure to follow along if you can’t be there in person.

To get us all in the spooky spirit of Halloween (and cupcakes) here’s a simple recipe for a classic chocolate cupcakes you can decorate with the kids!

The heads are just marshmallows dipped in green Wilton Candy Melts and then decorated with chocolate jimmies, Wilton candy eyeballs and some colored piping gel! It takes a little time to let the marshmallows dry between steps, but they are so much fun to put together, it’s totally worth it! Plus, you can make the faces with any expression you like!

I’m making these right now. So fun! I put the eyes and chocolate chunks on while the green coating was still wet…saved me a step! And I stuck candy sticks in the marshmallows to make dipping easier. Can’t wait to take these to work for this week’s pot luck. Should be a hit!